Sabine Richebächer

Dr. phil. Sabine Richebächer is a psychoanalyst based in Zurich. She has spent many years researching Spielrein’s life and work and published a biography on the subject.

Sabina Spielrein – a rediscovered voice of psychoanalysis

Sabine Richebächer 20.11.2025 The name Sabina Spielrein (1885-1942) mostly conjures up images of a very young woman who was both patient and friend to C. G. Jung before later becoming a psychoanalyst in her own right. But as well as practising as a therapist, she played a key role in shaping many theoretical and organisational aspects of the nascent field of psychoanalysis.

Sabina Spielrein (front row, second from left) began working at the Rousseau Institute in Geneva in 1921 – an academically productive period during which she gave lectures and talks, published papers and conducted a series of training analyses with her colleagues.